Monday Movies ~ For The Foodies!

Feature Presentation...
MONDAY MOVIE MEME

Molly edits Restaurants Blog for UpTake, a travel search engine site. She writes her own posts reviewing restaurants, bars, markets, cooking classes, food & wine expos, charitable food events and any other culinary functions going on in her region of the world or wherever she travels as well as managing a small team of writers. (Very cool, right?!). Molly spends part of her weekends eating out and then writes reviews for the upcoming week. Focusing on food caused her to think about food in film, a popular subject. Molly came up with a "feast of selections" that feature food in film. Below are my choice of movies that focus on food in whole or in part. Share on your blog movies that are about growing, cooking, serving, eating or any other function of food, linking your post back to The Bumbles Blog. If you don't have a blog, list your choices in the comment section of The Bumbles movie post!

Big Night (1996) Primo (Tony Shaloub) and Secondo (Stanley Tucci) are brothers who came to America from Italy and opened an Italian restaurant. Their restaurant is failing despite fantastic, delicious genuine Italian dishes by the brilliant Primo who refuses to give customers the routine dishes they expect. The brothers invite everyone they know to one special Big Night to save the restaurant. The food in this movie is amazing! If you haven't seen it yet, it's a fantastic movie but be sure you don't watch it when you're hungry!

Chocolat (2000) A woman, Vianne Rocher (Juliet Binoche) with her young daughter (Victoire Thivisol) opens a chocolate shop, La Chocolaterie Maya in a small French town in which the residents are reserved and stern. Vianne opens the store during the 40 days of Lent cysung some angst in the town. Vianne's chocolates also shake up the towns-people, bringing out their more passionate side and change many lives. Johnny Depp and Lena Olin are also in this movie.

Ratatouille (1997) An animated movie in which Remy, a rat, dreams about being a top chef despite the problems with being a rodent in the food business and his family's wishes for something different. Remy finds himself in Paris at the award-winning restaurant of his now deceased culinary hero, Auguste Gusteau. Remy's passion for cooking won't let him ignore this wonderful opportunity. What ensues is a hilarious, beautiful "rat race" as Remy attempts to fulfill his dreams!

Waitress (2007) Jenna (Keri Russell) a young waitress who works in a small restaurant that serves an unusual variety of pies from any kind of fruit pies to pies that combine chocolate chip cookies with butterscotch. Jenna life is one she wants to change and she dreams of owning her own pie restaurant. She bakes a pie for every thing in her life whether she's stressed, worried, happy, over-joyed etc. and she combines ingredients according to her mood. As the story of her life..small town, abusive husband, cute doctor, quirky friends, pregnancy...plays out she creates pies. Some of them sound so good!

Tortilla Soup (200) Martin Naranjo (Hector Elizondo) is a widowed patriarch of three daughters trying to keep raising his daughter with good values and morals. He is a chef in his own Mexican-American restaurant who cooks lavish dinners for his family every Sunday. Stress causes him to lose his taste and as he trys to get it back, he comes to some realizations. We are treated to a terrific movie as dad and his three daughters, the oldest working to be a more modern version of the chef her dad is, try to figure out their lives.

Spanglish (2004) In this movie a Mexican woman, Flor Moreno (Paz Vega) with a young daughter Cristina Moreno (Shelbie Bruce) moves in with the Clasky family for the summer when she's hired to work for this dysfunctional family. The husband/father, John Clasky (Adam Sandler), is a celebrated chef and restaurant owner who receives a top rating from the NY Times restaurant reviews but whose wife Deborah Clasky (Tea Leoni) is insecure.

Tom Jones (1963) Tom Jones is considered one of the wildest playboys in 18th century England with a ravenous taste for women, food and adventure! There is a dining scene featuring Tom and Jenny Jones (Joyce Redman) in the movie that is considered one of the most memorable demonstrations of the link between food and sex found in film. It begins with the loud slurping of big bowls of soup, Jenny's breasts practically falling out of her bodice as she leans over her bowl, slurping loudly and eyeing Tom lustfully at which point Tom rips the claw off a lobster and sucks at it noisily and happily...the scene continues including such things as Tom licking chicken bones, Jenny eating an apply lasciviously and oyster slurping.
Tom Jones (Albert Finney) is adopted by a British squire Allworthy (George Devine) as a born-out-of-wedlock baby (to Allworthy's barber and one of his servants) and raised as Allworthy's son. Tom grows up to be a handsome, kind, charming man and a rascal very popular with the ladies! He uses his popularity to his advantage going from bed to bed, having his fun and leaving a trail of broken hearts despite being truly in love with Sophie Western (Susannah York), another squire's daughter.